Ahhhhhgust

Not only have I worked on books every single day this year, but I posted to the blog every day in July, too. That’s so much blogging, I think it qualifies as blahhhhging. I have no idea how people do this regularly.

I will not be posting as much in August. The new book is whining for more attention and the tomato harvest is beginning to roll in which means I’ll be canning. (Yes – photos – I promise!) I welcome any and all salsa and zucchini recipes!

(One food preservation question – has anyone frozen zucchini?)

So blogging will be sporadic this month. Come September I’ll revert back to my obsessive ways, I promise. CHAINS will be published on October 21st and there will be lots of tour madness to share.

Enjoy the serenity! I know we all appreciate the posts you made daily, but sounds like a break is in order.

Enjoy this really simple zucchini-tomato recipe, too:

Pan fry some sliced zucchini in a little bit of olive oil. When they get kinda browned/soft (basically, when they feel like you could easily eat them), toss in some sliced tomatoes. Stir that around for just a short bit, then generously sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of all of it. Cover the pan and let that cheese just melt on in there. It goes really great with Italian-style chicken stuffs, and got me to enjoy zucchini as a kid!

I think I’m having symptoms of withdrawal. No Prompts. No challenges to order or disorder my thinking. Whine.

Or maybe it’s just an anticipatory whine because I won’t be able to tap into your site on a daily basis in August to see what you’ve come up with THIS time. Your WFMAD challenge really helped me, in several ways.

That is a gorgeous sunflower.

You’ve already figured out you won’t be able to stir-fry zucchini that’s been frozen and get quite the same result as fresh. It will be softer. But you can chop, slice, dice, or shred it for freeze for cooking in breads, stews, soups (as a last minute addition), and all that.

Casserole recipe: Lightly grease or Pam the bottom of a casserole pan. Add chopped or sliced uncooked zucchini, then chopped or sliced onion, then chopped or sliced cooked chicken (or cooked turkey or cooked pork or even fish), then crumble a package of cooked dressing mix, then grated cheese. Bake at 375 or so until the cheese is melted really well. If the chicken and dressing is cold, it will take a little longer. Great use for leftover chicken and homemade dressing too. Can use dressing and onion to stuff larger zucchinis. Halve the zucc, scoop out a little of the seeds and fill with/mound on dressing, onion, and cover with cheese. Bake. Yum.

Hi Laurie, Happy August. Don’t forget you can not only freeze zucchini, but DRY IT. It goes well in zucchini bread, dried. It’s a neat trick, and you can add raisins and cranberries and whatnot. Or, on the flip side of rabid healthfulness, chocolate chips… Happy harvest.

If the zukes are ginormous (so most of the time), I peel and seed them. If not, I just wash them. Either way, the next step is to grate and pack it into pint freezer cartons. It’s then ready to be thawed and used. Mostly I use them in soups, but whatever needs grated zucchini would work.

Have frozen shredded zucchini and ended up having to make zucchini bread all year long to get rid of it. Not a huge success. Making the bread (or cookies, or whatever) and freezing them was slightly better idea. Best idea: give a bunch away to the neighbors! Zucchini is better fresh.

Did you know you can grind it and mix it with crushed pineapple and other fruits to make fairly good jam?

Same here. Grated zucchini actually makes an excellent soup base. You can freeze it in ziplock bags (grated) either with or without chicken or vegetable stock. Then if you use it to make chicken or vegetable soup in the winter, it makes a slightly thicker, heartier soup.

Laurie,
I just wanted you to know that I didn’t start the writing challenge until the last week of July, but I am writing 15 minutes a day and loving it. A vacation and my work moving to a different campus made it really hard to start, but I was determined to participate. Also I just read the 7/11 post when you asked for our opinion on blogger book reviews. I use Shelfari and love it. It puts a really cool bookshelf widget on my blog so my friends and family know what I’m reading and it has a 4 star review system with room for comments if I am so inclined. http://www.shelfari.com
Thanks,
Martha

hey laurie, nice flower by the way. i love all your books, they inspired me to be the author i am today. i am writing a book that’s already seventy pages long. it’s a work in progress, but i just wanted to say thanks. Speak was the first book of yours i read and now i’m on Catalyst. i can’t wait to read Chains!!!